The players have responded very well

Tony Loughlan was in charge of the team at Curzon Ashton and he spoke about Robbie Brady following his return to action in last night’s game.

“It was brilliant for Robbie,” Loughlan said. “He’s been working so hard with the physios to get right. It’s fantastic he’s come through 45 minutes and I’m really pleased for him. He looked very sharp and could have got on the scoresheet himself. I don’t think he wanted to come off. The plan was always 45 minutes and he’s really pleased with his evening’s work as well.”

Burnley came from a goal behind to win the game 5-2 and Loughlan said: “I was very pleased. It was a really good work out. It was a third game now for a lot of the boys and the aim was to get 90 minutes into the legs, which we achieved.

“It was a very competitive game. At this time of year these clubs are really good opposition and they showed a lot of intensity and energy and played well with the ball on an excellent pitch, so it was a really good test.

“They went 1-0 up and in the second half we came out and managed to score some goals. It was nice to score some goals, brilliant for Vokesey, Nahki Wells and for Jon to get on the scoresheet. Again, the aim in pre-season is for strikers to start scoring goals for you and they did that tonight very well.”

Over at Macclesfield it was manager Sean Dyche in charge. He said after the 2-0 win: “The main thing has been getting these 90 minutes in because even though the Europa League kicks in, we are only half way through our pre-season.

“The Premier League is still three weeks away and that’s quite a long time, so normally the players wouldn’t be playing 90 minutes, nor would they on Tuesday, but we have to fast-track them and the players have responded to that very well.

“Obviously, I haven’t got a full report from the other game at Curzon, but here we could see the lads have adapted to it well after 90 minutes the other day. I know fans will say ‘they should be doing that’, but this is early. The risk and reward is there, but we’ve been monitoring the GPS and we know what loading they are putting in and their markers from the Premier League, so they are going nicely.

“I thought tonight was a really good show, not just because we played some good stuff, created good chances and scored a couple of good goals, but because the competitive edge was there. The work rate and the pressing, against a good outfit, so I am really pleased.”

Dyche explained the current injury situation, confirming that it’s a knee injury keeping Ashley Barnes out and not his blisters, but was pleased with the news on Brady. He said: “I’m pleased Robbie got 45 minutes in, and that was the plan. He’s going really well and we just have to be really careful because he’s a slow burner.

“We are just waiting on Ashley’s knee to settle, along with Steven’s calf, but tonight was a real step forward for Robbie and it looks like he’s come through it ok.”